I did manage to get out to a farm this morning: I dropped off a CD of pictures to Collette at Claravale Dairy out in Watsonville. As is usually the case, I had little Logan with me: he's been spending the night a lot which makes us very very happy. (Him, too!)
He'll be fifteen months old on Saturday, and he already knows to get his shoes on when his Nana (c'est moi) asks, "Do you want to go to a farm, Logan?" Surely nothing could be a better gift to a toddler than taking him along to all these farms. He's great company and everyone loves him. Even the farm animals love him. (Witness the goat giving the good-bye kiss in the photo above.)
Well, maybe the chickens aren't his greatest fans. Logan's a boy: he likes to chase birds on the ground.
But today was otherwise rather hectic on other fronts, and I have been bouncing around many thoughts that touch on farms and farming. Rather than feature a new farm today, I am going to reprint something I wrote last year at another food forum, which I called "The Blackmailing Babysitter: Me."
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June 16, 2004
Tonight Bob and I babysat for my ex-husband and his visiting brother (four little children!), so that the grown-ups and our teenaged daughter could all go out to dinner. I confess I got diabolical: I told them that I wouldn't babysit unless they went to a local/seasonal/organic/sustainable restaurant.
Mwah hah hah! I'm so mean.
They really had no choice, but he tried to argue with me. "But I like eating out on the wharf!"
I told him, "Fine, you can walk on the wharf. But you have to eat somewhere else."
I tried to explain how most restaurants just buy stuff at Costco or in industrial cans (a Ledyard truck outside a restaurant is Not a Good Sign), but he couldn't really get it, despite that he's seen the chef at his favorite Italian place in Capitola Village, laden with packaged stuff at Costco!
They decided on Oswald: a great choice, in my opinion. My real condition was that the chef has to be known to me for buying from our local farms. That narrowed it down a lot.
After going to the farmer's market today, I stopped at Soif, and was guided to the purchase of a bottle of champagne, which I dropped off at Oswald so they could chill it and bring it to the table. Yes, I probably should have bought a bottle of Santa Cruz wine, but I wanted to give them bubbles. (They were very very happy with it. I wish I'd written down the name. Doh!)
The family arrived at seven-fifteen, and they didn't get home until after ten. They were elated and shaking their heads at how wonderful all the food was. Those five people got to have the kind of experience in a restaurant that we here in Santa Cruz are spoiled with.
My sister-in-law and I talked about the food when they came back. My daughter's used to it, but she still thrills when she has that experience: the simplest ingredients—so fresh that to adulterate them with lavish sauces and adornments would be to gild the lily—in the hands of a talented chef who understands how to treat them, are masterpieces.
Believe me, that meal lit candles in those diners. I try not to preach, but merely to be lovingly stubborn: "Trust me."
This isn't an endorsement of Oswald over anyone else: I know that they would have gotten exquisite treatment in a half dozen places in the county. That's just the glory of Santa Cruz.
I am right now very grateful to our farmers, once again, for the cornucopia of treasures they provide. I'm ready to build a mission for the Russian Fingerling potato, myself.
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Among these restaurants and chefs who shop at the farmers markets are these Santa Cruz county gems (this list is not complete):
Ristorante Avanti [no web site]
1711 Mission St. • Santa Cruz, CA, 95060
831.427.0135
Brian Curry cooked one of the five perfect Outstanding in the Field farm dinners I had, at Happy Boy Farm in Santa Clara. He's a gifted chef who also excels in pastry. He's incredibly well-rounded, serious, devoted to this stuff. I sometimes refer to him as the Stephen Wright of chefs. Droll. Very droll.
Oswald (not Oswald's) [no web site]
1547 E Pacific Ave & Cedar St, downtown Santa Cruz
831-423-7427
See above for glowing praise...dear God. Damani Thomas and Eric Lau are wizards of good food. They made another Perfect Farm Dinner, set out at High Ground Organics, surrounded by flowers on the hillside.
Gabriella Café
910 Cedar Street, downtown Santa Cruz
831-457-1677
They've been seasonal and organic since December of 1992. A little gem...and I love it so much I work for trade. (I designed their website and do ongoing work with Paul Cocking, the owner.)
There are a lot of places that are organic, or which feature mostly organic produce, but these are what I recommend for a good dinner. There are a couple of top-drawer places that have great reputations (Theo's on Main Street in Soquel, and Bittersweet Bistro in Aptos), but I haven't been to either in so long that it wouldn't be fair to recommend them. However, I have a gift certificate from Theo's burning a hole in my pocket, and will report back as soon as I can.
Also, we did eat at Soif under the new chef, Chris Avila, last month. It was really wonderful, and I know that Chris worked previously at Manresa restaurant in Los Gatos. Manresa, only three years old, was recently selected one of the World's 50 Best Restaurants by Restaurant Magazine in London. If you haven't heard of it, you will. (Full disclosure: they are also a client with whom I exchange web work and photography, for one reason, and one reason only: Chef David Kinch is flat-out brilliant, and the food is as good as it can get, both in taste and artistry. David is the one who steered me back to Soif after I'd suffered a garlic-mouth episode that lasted for two days, telling me that the new chef was great. I can only assume Avila is as committed to finding great produce as Kinch is, and therefore I recommend them regardless of the gaps in my knowledge.)
Soif Wine Bar & Merchants
105 Walnut Street • Downtown Santa Cruz
831-423-2020
How about you? Do you see your chefs at the farmers markets? If you live in San Francisco, I bet you do.
Tell me about your chefs. I'll write more about them another time.
Thanks for visiting.
© 2005 Tana Anderson Butler, all rights reserved, period.
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